Three Unexpected Practices for Better Productivity (Talk Deck/Video)
Back in 2018, I had the privilege of visiting with HR leaders at a big beer company to discuss my experiences with teaming inside large organizations.
Transformation
Large-scale organizational change: what it really takes, and why so much of what gets called "transformation" isn't transformational.
35 posts
Centralization (For Marketers)
Centralization isn't a good thing or a bad thing. It's a pendulum that swings back and forth, and the key is to centralize and decentralize with intention. And to learn from what you've done.
Less Strategy, More Structure
Explaining why big, transformative top-down projects never seem to work, and two simple recommendations to fix the glitch: less strategy; more structure.
Rethinking Dynamism
The truth about most organizations, especially the big ones, is that they're structurally quite fast-moving and dynamic.
The Trouble With Innovation
Several years and one company ago, I found myself in a mid-project meeting with a group of clients from a large hospitality company. We were sat in an innovation room that could have been plucked directly from the d.School – every single furnishing came from their catalog. Sitting at the
Creating The Conditions
A corporate retreat day organized around three stories, three games, and three new practices.
Small Experiments With Radical Intent
Several months back, Erica and I were doing an introductory session with a Global Operations team inside of one of August's larger clients. We started with a quick retrospective to understand the issues facing the team. Along with the usual teaming stuff, we noticed an issue that, for
Change Activism
“Change Activism” has been a handy if hard-to-use phrase to help me frame how I view change in an organizational context.[1] We invite teams to try simple practices that make it easier for them to change actively, on-purpose, and informed by user data. When these practices work for teams,
Peeling Carrots
As I was peeling carrots for soup last night (snow day!), I realized that I always do it the same way: by doing the big end first. If you peel the carrot the other way, starting with the skinny end, the diameter and the newly wet surface don't
On Organizational Learning for YCN
Last year while in London helping Joe set up August's London office – and to help celebrate Joe's wedding, hence the gravelly tone and greasy appearance – I stopped by YCN to do a quick interview about how we help organizations learn. 0:00 /3:00 1× Transcript
Type 2 Organizations
Some decisions are consequential and irreversible or nearly irreversible — one-way doors — and these decisions must be made methodically, carefully, slowly, with great deliberation and consultation. If you walk through and don’t like what you see on the other side, you can’t get back to where you were before.
The New Model for Scaling a Company
Three old technologies (rule of law, market forces, and transparency) can help us move toward seven universal performance criteria for organizations: purpose; fitness; vitality; fairness; power; connection; safety.